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Reminds me of an economics joke: Two economists are walking down the street. One spots a $20 bill on the sidewalk. He bends to pick it up, but his companion st
by tvanantwerp 5y ago
Reminds me of an economics joke:
Two economists are walking down the street. One spots a $20 bill on the sidewalk. He bends to pick it up, but his companion stops him. "If there really were free money in the street," the companion says, "then somebody else would've picked it up before now."
- dathinab 5y agoI don't like the joke, tbh. Because: - In somewhat professional bussiness areas there is in general no free mony, but not because no one picked it up but because no one would place the money down/accidentally let it fall down without noticing. - But in specific contexts there is "free money" it's just that "in general" this context doesn't apply to you, e.g. there if you are Japanese person who wants to spend the next decade farming in the country side this might be a awesome deal for you. - But the "mony on the ground" analogy represents a "general but rare" situation, not a "very specific context", but you can find money on the ground and it's always worth picking it up, BUT you should check if there is a string attached to it (in that case literally ;=)). So for me the joke sounds like what someone would try to argue in self defense when doing a bad deal to reason that all is fine because they are not "blind sighted economists". In my environment (or more precise that of my dad) I have seen people going in that direction of "picking up free money" and making exactly this kind of jokes only to lose all the money they had maneuvering themself into a situation of basically falling into poverty not long before they normally could have gone into a nice reasonable wealthy retirement...
- tacostakohashi 5y agoThe humor in the joke comes from the mismatch between economic theory and reality.
- alentist 5y agoElaborate, because it sounds like a strawman.
- dathinab 5y agoI can agree with him the mismatch is what makes me dislike the joke as it can spawn bad ideas but also what can make it funny in a "dark humorous" way. Me not liking the joke doesn't necessary mean it's not funny :=/ Like a joke which makes you both laugh and feel bad at the same time...
- imtringued 5y agoPerfect markets have no time lag, everything happens instantaneously. Thus it is always in the perfect state. The real world is not that convenient.
- alentist 5y agoAnd? What does that have to do with the GP?
- alentist 5y agoYour claim that economics does not consider time lag is ignorant nonsense. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/economics-econometrics-and-finance/lag-model https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/economics-econometrics-... https://www.jstor.org/stable/2343782 https://www.jstor.org/stable/2343782 https://www.bis.org/publ/confp04l.pdf https://www.bis.org/publ/confp04l.pdf
- tinus_hn 5y agoIt’s a joke.
- PragmaticPulp 5y agoIf you get to the point where the $20 bills on the ground are being advertised online in other countries after being on the ground for years, then there is probably a massive catch. Substitute $20 bills on the ground with $500 house in Japan and it’s obvious why this joke analogy doesn’t apply.
- bryanrasmussen 5y agoAfter laboriously explaining the logical errors in his companion's warning the first economist bends over the pick up the $20 bill again, only to find it quickly pulled away down the street on a fishing line being pulled by a couple of pranksters hidden around a corner.
- dvh 5y agoRussian and Ukrainian are walking down the street. They both spots $100 bill. Russian picks it up and says: "Let's split like brothers!" and Ukrainian says: "No! Let's split 50:50"
- oblio 5y agoAh, another branch of the "Q: Which countries does Russia border? A: Whichever countries it wants to." jokes, I see :-D
- TimTheTinker 5y agoI'm not Russian or Ukrainian, but I suspect this stems from the Stalin's treatment of occupied Ukraine in the early 1930's, where so much of their grain was shipped out of the country that 25% of Ukraine's population had died by 1933.
- all2 5y agoI don't know why you're getting downvoted. Often the core of comedy is pain. Knowing this puts the GP's joke in a darker, more grounded context.
- User23 5y agoDark humor is like food. Not everyone gets it.
- eulgro 5y agoMeta humor
- TimTheTinker 5y agoI suspect the reason is that in many western nations, it's becoming politically incorrect to paint socialism/communism in a negative light, despite the realities of the 20th century (and present atrocities being committed by the current mainland Chinese government).
- paulddraper 5y agoAnd yet somehow hedge funds exist to look for $20 bills in streets.
- ASalazarMX 5y agoThe first economist picks up the bill anyway. It was a fake, and on the other side there's an ad for a strip club. Visit the strip club? (Y/N): _